Cotton vs organic cotton

Conventional cotton and organic cotton are, fibre for fibre, the same material with the same handfeel, breathability and moisture behaviour on the body. Nothing about wearing an organic-cotton tee feels different from wearing a conventional-cotton tee of the same weight and knit. The distinction lives entirely upstream, in how the crop was grown.

What "organic" actually changes

Organic cotton is grown under a standard that restricts synthetic pesticides and fertilisers and requires non-GMO seed. That is an agricultural and environmental distinction, not a change in the finished fibre's physical properties. It also is not, on its own, a statement about the finished garment's processing — dyeing, printing and finishing can still use chemistry with its own environmental footprint, which is why a serious organic-cotton certification like GOTS bundles processing and social criteria on top of the fibre-content requirement rather than certifying the raw cotton alone.

Why the claim needs a document

Because the fibre is physically identical, "organic" cannot be verified by looking at, touching, or lab-testing a swatch of finished fabric the way a harmful-substance test can look at chemical residue. The only way to know a garment is genuinely organic cotton is to trace it back through the supply chain — from certified farm, through certified spinning and processing, to a licence number a certifier stands behind. That is why we require a certificate before crediting a product as organic at anything above a brand's own declared claim, and why GOTS sets a threshold: at least 95% certified organic fibre for an "organic" grade, at least 70% for "made with organic" wording.

How we record this

A brand statement with no document earns a declared-level entry — useful, but the lowest tier we show. A test report or certificate on file, not yet checked against the issuer's database, sits one level up. A licence number we have personally checked on GOTS's public database is the only thing that earns our top evidence level for an organic claim. All three are shown as what they are; none is disguised as another.

What to look for

• A licence number on the certificate, not just a "GOTS" logo.
• Whether the claim covers "organic" (95%+) or "made with organic" (70%+) — a real difference in composition.
• That organic status says nothing about softness, durability or finish chemistry — those are separate claims that need their own evidence and should not be assumed from an organic label alone.